
Class. 
Book. 






d. 



THE DEATH OF LINCOLN, 

APRIL 15th, 1865. 

jSorme of tjje Religious ^mam toljicl] it Ceacljes, 

S tit- 

A SERMON, 



PREACHED IN 



ZION CHURCH, NEW-YORK, 



First Sunday after Easter, April 23d, 1865. 



BY THE RECTOR, 



THE RIGHT REV. HORATIO SOUTIIGATE, I). D. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE VESTRY. 



^Ufa-fork: 



.TOIIN W. AMK KM AN, PRINTER, 

N'o. 47 Ckoab Strert. 

1S65. 



THE DEATH OF LINCOLN, 

APRIL 15th, 1865. 

iflme of tlje ^elijians Cessans tojficlf it Cracks, 



A SERMON, 



PREACHED IN 



ZION CHURCH, NEW-YORK, 

ON THE 

First Sunday after Easter, April 23d, 1865- 

BY THE RECTOR, 

THE RIGHT REV. HORATIO SOUTHGATE, D. D. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE VESTRY. 



^tfo-gork: 



JOHN W. AMEPtfAN, PRINTED, 
No. 47 Cedar Strebt. 

1865. 



L^5 



1 







SERMON. 



Isaiait, xxvi., 9.— "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world 
will learn righteousness. 



It is my custom, on the first Sunday after Easter, to 
give an annual review of the state and progress of the 
Parish. But I have no heart to speak of it to-day ; 
although the record would show the highest degree of 
prosperity that we have attained since I have been your 
Rector. My thoughts are filled with the one theme 
which, for a week, has occupied all minds. I find it in 
vain to attempt to turn them to other studies and 
meditations, and, I have no doubt, the same is true of 
you. Let me, then, speak as the Pulpit may fittingly 
speak, of the one great event which absorbs all interest ; 
and which will live in history as long as the world shall 
last, the most striking feature of the middle years of 
the nineteenth century, perhaps the most marked in 
the whole centennial cycle. 

I would hardly trust myself to speak so soon, if it were 
not probable that the great National Day of Fasting, 
which will commemorate the unparalleled calamity that 
has fallen upon us, will have passed before my return 
from the field of my next month's labours ; and it may 
be, therefore, if I do not speak noiv, my Pulpit will 
have been silent upon the mighty theme. 



I would not have this to be ; for I recognise in the 
catastrophe an occasion for many utterances which may 
fitly fall from the lips of the Minister of God. The 
office of the Pulpit is peculiar, and it is limited. It 
has nothing to do with worldly politics, farther than to 
apply to them the great laws of morality and religion. 
But here is an event, occurring within the civil world, 
which bows all hearts in humiliation and sorrow. The 
public mind requires the consolations of Christian sym- 
pathy. There are, also, lessons, deep religious lessons, 
to be drawn from this universal bereavement. I ac- 
knowledge myself unqualified, by my very profession, 
for the task of discussing the civil questions connected 
with it, and its bearing upon the future political condi- 
tion and destiny of our land. But within the scope 
which my office allows, the vast field of its religious 
uses, I may expatiate at liberty ; and I shall best fulfil 
the functions of that office, if I may teach you how, 
as Christian men, you are to regard this visitation of 
the mighty hand of God. 

For, although the blows which have so deeply wound- 
ed our peace were struck by wicked men, the lowest 
theory of Divine Providence must acknowledge that 
they fell, not only with the prescience, but with the 
permission of Deity. The most important death, by 
the hand of violence, that the world has ever known, 
was foreordained of God, although it was accomplished 
by the art of Satan, instigating the heart of a traitor. 
It came to pass, that the divine purpose of universal 
mercy to man might be fulfilled ; and yet, for Judas, 
who betrayed our Lord, it were better for him if he 
had never been born. So here, while the murderous 
passions of revenge and hate may have stimulated the 



heart, and nerved the hand of the wretched man, who, 
if his life be not speedily ended, is henceforth a "fugitive 
and a vagabond in the earth," it is no less true, that the 
death of our President falls within the lines of God's 
Providence, and enters into the accomplishment of 
His designs. It would have been as easy for Deity to 
avert the fatal ball from his head, as to turn aside the 
knife from the heart of his Secretary of State, or to 
frighten the culprit who seems to have been in waiting 
for Stanton, or to disarrange the plan which appears to 
have been laid for the sacrifice of the Vice-President. 
Why was Lincoln suffered, against his wish, to go to the 
theatre, while Grant, who intended to be there, and was, 
doubtless, to be another of the victims, was diverted 
from his purpose ? We can see in these different 
issues the hand of God, guiding the order of events, 
directing each to the accomplishment of that end which 
suited best with His own supreme design. I say, then, 
that the death of the President was, unquestionably, a 
link in the sequence of affairs which connected the ac- 
complished past with the unborn future. It will be only 
when anticipation shall have become history, that we can 
read the divine purpose aright. What He intends for 
us, what is to follow from this direful tragedy, we can 
only feebly conjecture. But it is all clear to the eye 
of Him who knoweth the end from the beginning. 

One comfort and consolation we have, in the know- 
ledge of the fact, that we are the sufferers of a grievous 
wrong. Our President has been struck down by the 
hand of violence. Our country is stabbed in the body 
of the chief civil officer under the President. It is in- 
justice, it is infraction of God's law, it is murder, prac- 
ticed upon us. Believe you, brethren, that the cause 



will prosper in behalf of which the blows were struck ? 
Believe you that the cause will suffer whose chief was 
wickedly shot from behind by the hand of one who 
hates it ? Forbid it, justice. Nay, the God of mercy, 
no less than the God of righteousness, will suffer no en- 
terprise to prevail by such fiendish instrumentalities. 
On this point I feel wholly at ease. Our great sorrow, 
coming as it does, must be the harbinger of good to 
us. Suffering from the unrighteous deed of man, we 
may cheerfully commit the keeping of our beloved 
country to Him as to a faithful Creator. Assassination 
is the weapon of hatred, malice and uncharitableness. 
It cannot prosper. I see, then, in the very wickedness 
of the act on which God frowns, the assurance that no 
harm can come from it to those against whom it was 
aimed ; no good can come from it to those who planned 
and executed it, or to the cause in behalf of which it 
was attempted. They struck a fatal blow at Rebellion 
who were so unwise as to seek to sustain its sinking 
fortunes, or prevent its threatened downfall, by the 
crime of wilful murder. As God is true, as He is just, 
as He is benevolent, as He would sustain the dignity 
and sanctity of His own laws, He is now pursuing, with 
His infinite displeasure, the agents in this iniquitous 
transaction ; and, as far as they represent it, He is hos- 
tile to the enterprise which has resorted to this impious 
means of success. 

But, how far is that enterprise itself involved in the 
responsibility ? How far does this hideous act impli- 
cate those who are sustaining that enterprise — the mil- 
lions of our fellow-countrymen at the South ? Let us 
suppose, as it is most charitable to do, and as is alto- 
gether most probable, that they knew nothing of it 



beforehand, and that they will repudiate it with indig- 
nation and horror when it is revealed to them. Is 
their cause responsible ? We say it is ; so far, and only 
so far, as the act is the natural and legitimate offspring 
of Rebellion. And is not Rebellion its mother ? and 
is it not of the very same quality with its parent ? 
What is Rebellion ? It is itself a violation of the law 
of God, an undertaking to destroy the powers that be, 
which are ordained of God. I have nothing to retract 
or alter in the doctrine with which, from this sacred 
place, I set forth, four years ago, the guiltiness of re- 
bellion, as declared by the word of God. That doc- 
trine stands to-dav, and will stand forever ; because it 
rests upon the immovable basis of the Divine Word. 
I neednot repeat it now. But, if Rebellion be a sin, 
what wonder is it that it breeds sin ? If I, or four 
millions with me, aim a blow at my country's life, what 
wonder is it if one of us, or four of us, or a hundred of 
us, are so blinded by the passion which possesses us all, 
that they cannot discriminate between the act which 
would destroy the life of the Government, and the act 
which would destroy the lives of the individual men in 
whom, for the moment, it is vested ? Is it any matter 
for marvel, that persons of no more than ordinary intel- 
ligence, animated by hate, confound the two ? Is not 
the act which has just now transpired in Washington, 
and which has brought a nation into the dust of grief, 
perfectly germain with the act of secession, which more 
than four years ago struck a blow, meant to be a fatal 
one, at the Constitution, which is the vital organ of our 
national existence ? What was the life, even of the 
honored chieftain who has been so terribly and so mys- 
teriously snatched from us, when compared with the 



8 

life which the Rebellion itself sought to terminate ? It 
is a great law of religion, (and, therefore,, I insist upon 
it this morning,) that sin produces sin- by a sort of 
natural necessity. He, who enters upon a course of 
wickedness, is pretty sure to commit, in the prosecution 
of it, many other iniquities than that which he origin- 
ally contemplated. It has been so here. The plotted 
murder of the Nation has led to the sacrifice of the 
life of its head. Do we stand aghast at the inhuman 
wickedness of the man who is now fleeing from the 
wrath of an injured people ? Why are we so much 
amazed ? He sowed to the wind ; he has reaped the 
whirlwind. He suffered to enter into his heart the sin 
of Rebellion. He nourished and cherished it in his 
bosom. He gave himself up, body and soul, to it. 
The power which God had taught him to revere and 
fear, he repudiated and despised. He saw one holding 
that power, representing it, embodying it. Is it so 
much to be wondered at, that he transferred his hatred 
from one to the other ? How could it well be other- 
wise? He had no personal enmity to Mr. Lincoln. 
His life, in itself, was no object of hate to him. But 
he wished to kill the nation ; and, that he might ac- 
complish that purpose, he killed him in whom the life 
of the nation breathed and acted. Was not this na- 
tural ? Was it not to be expected ? And, does it not 
show, that Rebellion is responsible for that ghastly mur- 
der? Before God, it seems to me, that this is a 
righteous verdict. I say, then, to my brethren of the 
South, (many of whom know how kindly I have felt 
towards them, however I condemned their sin ; not a 
few of whom, even with tears, thanked me when, not 
five months ago, I had the opportunity, and used it, 



for pleading, before a congregation in which were 
gathered many of those who sway the council of the 
nation, for the application, even to rebels, of the great 
laws of Christian love and magnanimity,) I say to them, 
with the same love which animated me then, " My 
brothers, you and I are equally horrified, it may be, 
by this transcendent crime. But, do you not see, that 
it has sprung, by natural conception, out of the womb 
of the great sin of Rebellion ? And, shall not this dire 
catastrophe at length open your eyes to see the true 
nature of the motive which has led you to raise a par- 
ricidal hand against the Nation ? Will you repudiate 
the crime, and not the mother which spawned it? Oh, 
my brothers, let us, at length, see eye to eye ; and, over 
the body of our murdered Head, yours and ours, vow 
that the sin which struck the blow, shall itself die by 
the vigorous stroke of our restored unity and love." I 
have some hope that it will be so ; that this revolting 
spectacle of base and cowardly murder will dispel the 
delusion which has so long haunted the minds of thou- 
sands of intelligent and, otherwise, virtuous men, who 
were once united with us, not only by the ties of a com- 
mon country, but by the bonds of one faith, the love of 
one Lord, the sacrament of one baptism, and the confi- 
dence of a warm and tender friendship. But, if it may not 
be, then, my brothers of this congregation, as Christian 
men, as men who fear God and respect His command- 
ments, let it be our firm resolve, and let the dead body 
of our departed chief plead for the fulfilment of it, that 
we will know no rest till the sin of Rebellion be purged 
from the land. Has it been hateful before ? Let the 
crime which it has inaugurated, show us its true fea- 
tures in all their frightful hideousness. It is condemned 



10 

of God. Let it be proscribed and exterminated by- 
rnan. Let there be set upon it the mark of the first 
murderer, " that every one that findeth it shall slay it." 
It may be, (but this, as I have said of all such inter- 
pretations of God's providence, is matter only of feeble 
conjecture ; for, what fallible man shall presume to 
fathom His designs ?) that He saw, that the gentle and 
loving course on which our murdered President, with 
the general consent and applause of the nation, was 
about to enter, would leave the root of bitterness, in 
the full vigor of its baneful life, beneath the soil ; there 
to breed, hereafter, another crop of woes, after its kind. 
It may be, that his gentle heart was taken away from 
a new work for which he was not fitted. It may be, 
that a sterner will has been called in to execute it. 
His mission was ended. He had done the work to 
which he had been appointed ; and, all now admit, in 
the light of the final success, he did it well. We honor 
him for his work's sake. He is beyond our poor re- 
wards. But, he is with Him, whose " Well done, good 
and faithful servant," is far more to him than would be 
the plaudits of men, the ovation of a popular triumph. 
The tears we shed, (and, who of us has shed no tear, 
the last ten days ?) the sable hues of woe we display, 
the gorgeous, yet mournful procession which bears his 
slaughtered body, embalmed in our memories beyond 
any art of man, to its final resting-place, and the lofty 
record of his deeds and of his goodness which we will 
make, and preserve, in the annals of the nation, and 
point to, on the everlasting monument which we will 
rear to his fame, are but the fitting tribute of grateful 
and sorrowing hearts. But, we mourn not as men 
without hope ; not for him ; for, there is more and 



11 

more of accumulating evidence, that he was a man who 
feared God and wrought righteousness ; not for the 
country for which he died ; for, God would not have 
suffered any harm to hurt his life, till his work was 
done. Of this we may be well assured ; and, there- 
fore, through all the blinding tears of our present 
grief, from beneath the cloud of our brooding fears, 
we may, confidently, look forward to the light which 
shines upon our distant path, and see it resting upon 
the head of him who is now called to bear the burden 
which our Lincoln has laid down, and believe, that he 
too has his work to perform, and will be guided by the 
same Almighty hand to fulfil it. Let us give to him, 
as he most needs, the homage which Christian men 
owe, under their supreme Leader, Christ, to one who, 
Christ's apostle tells us, bears the sword of justice as 
the " minister of God." And, doubt ye not, that the 
work which remains to be done, (and, God alone knows 
what that work is,) will be fitly done by him whom 
the Most High, in His providence, has called to the 
arduous task on which he has entered. 

But, there is another lesson which I must not fail to 
teach you this morning. When tidings came of the 
overthrow of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the 
occupation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the hearts 
of all loyal men leaped for joy, not only in view of that 
grand achievement, but in confident anticipation of the 
speedy return of peace, I said to myself, " Is it pos- 
sible, then, that we are to have no greater chastening 
than we have endured ? How wonderful and mys- 
terious are the ways of God ! For four long years, 
there have appeared, among us of the North, no living 
signs of deep humiliation for the [sinfulness which 



12 

brought upon us the curse of civil war. Nay, on the 
contrary, all vice and wickedness have increased, and 
grown rampant, among us. Corruption in public 
places, and extravagance, luxury and reckless living 
in private and social life, to an extent never before 
known, all showing a greater forgetfulness of God 
while His heavy hand was upon us, have proved, that 
His chastisement brought us no profit. I have be- 
lieved, with fear and trembling, when I have looked 
upon this growing wickedness, in days which should 
have been given to penitence and self-searching and 
sober living, that the war would not end without our 
receiving some new and severe discipline. That God 
should give us success, when we have not only failed 
to repent of our former degeneracy as a Nation, but, 
even while under His rod, have heaped up iniquity on 
iniquity ; that He should give us final success, without, 
first, humbling us, has seemed to me impossible. And 
now the end is at hand. The worst of the war is over. 
The power of the Rebellion is broken. The day-star 
of Peace is shining, with benign and cheerful light, 
above our eastern horizon. And, amidst the universal 
jubilation, there is no thought but of elated satisfaction 
and triumph. And God does not punish us. Excepting 
the precious lives which we have lost, (a loss which has 
beclouded many a private home, but which has hardly 
been felt by us as a Nation, so rapidly and fully have 
their places been supplied by others,) the career of the 
country, throughout the war, has been one of ever-in- 
creasing wealth and prosperity, as well as of ever- 
growing wickedness. And now all the evil is coming 
to an end ; and, there remains no lesson of thorough 
humiliation, to benefit us for the future. Nay, rather, 



13 

we seem likely to go forward with a more elated, a 
more proud, a more self-complacent spirit than ever 
before ; and one shudders to think of the way before 
us, with all this increased confidence in ourselves, all 
this more deeply corrupted morality of the people and 
our rulers, all this neglect and practical defiance of 
God." I could not understand it. It was a mystery 
to me. Far and wide, in many lands, I had studied 
God's ways towards man ; but this remained a strange 
and unprecedented development of His providence. 
I said to myself, " I cannot comprehend it. His ways 
are not our ways ; His thoughts are not our thoughts ; 
and, even when we have learned His ways, a sudden 
cloud hides them from us." 

While I was pondering upon these things, in mingled 
surprise and adoration of His incomprehensible majesty, 
while the sun was shining in the clear noon-day of our 
triumphant prosperity, and hardly a shadow of dimness 
rested upon the bright vista of our prospects ; while all 
around breathed of peace, and every heart was reposing 
in joyful security, suddenly, as if it were a thunderbolt 
out of the clear sky at high noon, there fell upon us a 
mighty woe. A darkness gathered, in an instant, 
around us, like the blackness of a starless midnight. 
We were as blind men groping for the wall. Our leader 
gone, a sudden dismay sunk into our hearts. We 
seemed to be standing upon the verge of universal 
wreck and ruin. 

Oh, my brothers, what a lesson for the future is here. 
Let us thank God, amidst this overwhelming affliction, 
that we find ourselves on our knees at last. Shall we 
ever be proud again? Shall we not rejoice with 
trembling, whatever good His supreme bounty may 



14 

bestow upon us? Shall we not be bumble, even 
in triumph? No event of the war has made us really 
mourn till now. Defeat has only roused our pride, 
stimulated our hostile passions, quickened our revenge. 
But now we are in the dust. We know, we feel, that 
God liveth. We see His hand in chastisement. We 
bow before the severe blow of His heavy discipline. 
Happy for us, if this spirit shall abide with us ! Happy, 
if we have learned to recognise God in our prosperity ! 
If our bitter sorrow may but convert us into an humble 
and a righteous nation, we may, in the great hereafter, 
raise to our departed President a monument which 
shall bear the grateful inscription, "we were blessed by 
his life; we were yet more blessed by his death." 



m 



